Konqueror status bar behaviour

I'm sorry to take your time with this, but I need to find a place in konqueror's sources.
I want to make a little change and I just need somebody to point me to the right place in the sources.
I need to modify the behaviour of the konqueror status bar - I'm using konqueror 4.8.4-2 on Debian.
When first launched, konqueror displays a standard status bar (snapshot1.png),
but as soon as I open a second tab (snapshot2.png),
or as soon as I press F9 and open the sidebar (snapshot3.png),
the status bar is replaced by some white strip whose colour cannot be changed and looks nothing like the standard status bar.
I don't know what to call this white strip, so I don't even know what to google for to disable. Googling for something like "konqueror status bar changes appearance doesn't yield anything relevant.
Is there any easy quick way to disable this white strip and make the standard status bar permanent regardless of number of tabs opened and regardless of the sidebar on or off ?
No need to make a patch, just please someone familiar with konq sources point me to the right place.
Thank you
Cristian